Goaltender James Reimer was solid when called upon, saving 21 shots in the game

There also was some bad news for Team Canada. With just one minute to go in the first period, forward Alex Burrows left the game after taking a hit to his knee from Italy’s Joachim Ramoser, who was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct on the play.

After five games, Canada has 13 points and tops the group ahead of Sweden’s late game versus Slovakia. Italy is the last placed team in the group, with three points.

David Borrelli had the Italian goal but other than that, there really wasn’t much to be happy about other than the start of the game when the Italians caught Canada standing on their heels and both Brian Ihnacak and Marco Insam both had good chances to score.

Canada clawed their way into the game and 13 minutes in, Joel Ward scored Canada’s first, coming in on a 2-on-1 break with Mark Scheifele. As he was looking towards Scheifele, he let go of an accurate wrist shot that went through Daniel Bellissimo’s five-hole.

Six minutes later, the Ramoser’s hit on Burrows caused a break in play. On the on the five-minute power play that resulted, Canada produced little for the first two minutes. After that, they put more pressure on the Italian net and made it 2-0 when Hodgson picked up a rebound in front, letting go of a quick wrist shot that eluded Bellissimo.

And Canada wasn’t finished by any means. Six minutes in, Scheifele once again found himself on a 2-on-1 break, this time carrying the puck. He found Jason Chimera with a crisp pass, who made no mistake with his angled wrist shot, putting Canada up 3-0.

Three minutes later, Canada made it 4-0 with a short-handed goal from Kyle Turris. On yet another 2-on-1 rush, Matt Read passed the puck to Turris, who pushed the puck into the net as Bellissimo moved from his right side to his left.

Hogdson had his second of the night late in the middle round, with a backhanded shot high on Bellissimo’s glove side. The goal came after a sustained pressure in the Italian zone. Nathan MacKinnon and Brayden Schenn had the assists.

After two periods, Andreas Bernard replaced Bellissimo in the Italian net. The change gave Italy som life, as they finally got their first of the game as David Borrelli deflected a Giulou Scandella shot from the point.

But that was all the Italians could muster this night as Canada continued to control play in the third. With 3:30 remaining, Brayden Schenn closed out the scoring for the game and made it 6-1 after a feed from Nathan MacKinnon.